The exceptional Canadian road trip

by layla Uncategorized

Helloooooo! I’m back from our little road trip across our province! Firstly, thank YOU for the birthday wishes here and on Instagram! I really appreciate it! I spent my birthday hiking through a Unesco world Biosphere Reserve, so it wasn’t a bad way to spend the day.

The Grotto, Tobermory
Before I get back into appeal posts, I thought I’d share some of the photos I took on the trip – I’ll try not to replicate the ones I posted on Instagram – and provide some quick tidbits about our trip:

• Covered 1,700 km and were on the road for 22 hours spread over 5 days of driving (plus a ferry ride) – stopping into 5 towns / cities along the way, ending with our country’s capital, Ottawa. (I must mention here that my title is a little misleading considering that Canada has SO much a lot more to offer than just the province of Ontario – just in case any of the West or East coast / Quebec get their panties all in a bunch – it’s just that “Canadian road trip” is a lot more impactful than “Ontario road trip” for my non-Canadian readers!)

• discovered our love for the podcasts The Bugle (British political satire with John Oliver and Andy Zaltzman) and stuff You must know (we listened to the episodes on street Gangs, Junk Food, Does the body replace itself? and 10 Bizarre medical Treatments)

• B&Bs do supply toiletries to varying degrees: of the 3 that we stayed at, only 1 supplied individual / travel sized shampoo / lotion similar to hotels – the other 2 supplied “communal” full sized toiletries like as if you’re checking out your relatives’ home.  One B&B even had a bidet which really grossed me out but I wished I had tried it… has any individual ever used a bidet before?

• The place that shocked us the most was Sudbury – if any Ontarians are familiar, this town has the distinction of being a bit of an industrial mining community (30% of the world’s nickel comes from Sudbury) but it has a beautiful waterfront and quite a lot of hiking / conservation areas.

• Didn’t have any wild animal encounters (no deer, moose, bears) but we did see a tiny rabbit and a couple of groundhogs… in Ottawa (which is funny considering that it was the most urban of all the places we visited)

• Saw Gord Downie (of The Tragically Hip fame) outside our hotel – he was in Ottawa for Bluesfest!

• We didn’t do any shopping save for a couple of silver coins from the royal Canadian Mint, a bookmark and a fridge magnet.

• checked out 10 museums / attractions during our trip including a very realistic simulated nickle mine, the animals inside Out exhibit by Body Worlds, and a real 1960’s Cold War bunker indicated for the Prime minister and 500 other top government officials.

Onto the pictures! (Yes, I took all of these pictures myself!)

MS Chi-Cheemaun ferry, Tobermory
Bruce Peninsula national Park
Little Tub Lighthouse, Tobermory
Big Nickel, Sudbury
Hermit’s Bay, Sudbury
Parliament Hill, Ottawa
Rideau Canal lock, Ottawa
Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica, Ottawa
Sparks Street, Ottawa
As you can see, we had amazing weather – the only rainy day was the last day which we spend indoors at museums.  I return with a layer of sunscreen covering all of my clothes, 5 mosquito bites (thankfully none of which are on my face or buttocks!) and probably 30% a lot more freckles on my face.  Now, I’ve got a lot of blog entries to catch up on! (Has WP messed around with Reader? It looks different!)  It feels great to be back.

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